Martin Lagustan

Burnout in Healthcare Providers and the Future of Our Healthcare It is quite ironic that doctors or nurses would seek help in their health from other healthcare professionals. However, unbeknownst to most people, there is an epidemic plaguing almost every single medical practitioner in the US, and that is burnout. The Impact of Burnout on the Future of Healthcare Healthcare providers typically work long, stressful hours. Although common, this can have adverse effects on their health, like depression, heart ailments, and other mental and physical problems that can lead to burnout. However, how does this affect the future of healthcare? #1. Insufficient Quality of Patient Care Based on a study about how stress influences a person’s decision-making skills, dead-tired and stressed professionals are more likely to make poor decisions at work. Hence, healthcare providers may experience confusion and misdiagnose patients. Ward nurses, for example, have to deal with a lot of patients every day, and one of their responsibilities include giving the right medicine to each patient at the right time. Put burnout and stress in the picture, and one can only imagine what would happen should they make mistakes. #2. Deficiency in Patient Engagement Excellent communication skills are valuable for healthcare professionals as they have to deal with different people every working hour. Unfortunately, healthcare providers suffering from burnout are more likely to have poor engagement with patients. This can negatively affect a patient’s satisfaction, or worse, it may prevent other people from seeking medical treatment from them in the future. #3. Staff Shortages Stressed-out medical professionals are more likely to leave their jobs than those who aren’t. This can become a problem for any hospital as patients will always come walking in. However, what hospital administrators also worry about is how this affects the remaining staff members. The number of quitting employees would mean those who stay will have to work overtime to fill the deficit. Consequently, this will eventually cause the remaining staff to experience burnout as they are working more than they should. #4. Negative Effect on Other Staff Burnout can have a negative impact on the entire workforce in a medical facility called the stress contagion effect. This happens when a stressed-out individual passes their stress onto another person, and that person passes it to another. As a result, tense and uneasy relationships in the work environment can form and affect the overall performance of the team. The hospital is already a stressful environment, which is why one overly stressed-out member of the staff is like gasoline to fire. Not only will this affect the workers, but it can also become detrimental to the patients that these burnt out professionals engage with. Fighting Burnout At the end of the day, healthcare providers are still workers that need some rest. They should be encouraged to spend more time with their families or have some alone time. Having sufficient time to rest is a small price to pay, considering the dent that burnout can do in the future of healthcare.